Lucky you, to have Win7! My recently purchased lap-top came with that turkey 8.1. After 11 years with XP, I can't understand Microsoft's business plan in sticking the world with 8.1 (or several of its equally inept predecessors). I'll be getting Win 10 and it had better be a big improvement and easy to use, or I'll become an Apple user. DW's iPad is a cinch to use, though I'm not a fan of touch-screens.

I hope Microsoft has finally awakened to the fact that their customer base isn't all computer nerds like them.

I'm going to wait a while also. MS just released a massive update to W-10. Why would it need one two days after it was released? It sounds like MS has screwed up big-time again! W-8 users have up to a year to sign up, so I'll at least wait until early next year, listening to early adopters opinions meanwhile. Since I avoided all the versions between XP and 8.1, I'm not in any particular hurry.

After using Eileen's iPad a few times, my loyalty to those clowns in Redmond has definitely been diluted.

Fiverise, you're lucky you're using something you like. That's assuredly not the case for me with Win 8.1. I'll have to get used to it, but it's certainly not easy. ALGOL, FORTRAN and even assembly languages were easier to learn!

I'm not a gamer, Dave, so the that extra cost isn't an issue for me. I did have to get a new version of the banking program "Quicken" and my really good, dedicated HP100 photo printer is not 8.1 compatible. My main printer is an Epson 2540, which claims to be "photo quality", but I haven't tried it yet.

We have installed Windows 10 on our desktop (previously Win7) and our laptop (Win 8). Sol far so good, booting up and shutting down seem quicker. I deactivated the sign in for the desktop as we don't need it.